Chasing cubesats with the Funcube Dongle and Arrow antenna

Inspired and impressed by the performance of the Funcube Dongle during my initial tests, I have decided to perform some more thorough tests using a minimalistic setup consisting of a laptop running Gpredict and Quisk SDR software, the Funcube Dongle and an Arrow II hand held satellite antenna.

The temperature is not exactly optimal for such outdoor tests and the bitterly cold wind does not make it any better; nevertheless, I have already received CUTE-1.7, SEEDS-II, HO-68, SWISSCUBE, ITUPSAT-1, KKS-1 and PRISM. All these satellites transmit with ~100 mW beacons. I think this is as cheap as space communications can get.

Chasing cubesats

Of course, our dog couldn’t care less about how cold it is. He still prefers to lie on the snow.

Tough dog

The recordings are collected on this page.